Richard Bassett

Richard Bassett

Richard Bassett (born April 2, 1745 in Bohemia Ferry , Cecil County , Province of Maryland , † August 15, 1815 in the Bohemia Manor , Maryland) was an American lawyer and politician who ruled the state of Delaware from 1789 to 1793 in the US Senate and then served as its governor from 1799 to 1801 .

Life

Richard Bassett was born in Cecil County on April 2, 1745, to Arnold and Judith Thompson Bassett. After his father, a tavern owner, left the family, he was raised by a relative named Peter Lawson. This was related to him through Bassett's mother. She was the great-granddaughter of Augustine Herman , the first lord of the large Bohemia Manor estate . This relationship later revealed that Richard Bassett inherited that property as well as other estates and wealth.

Bassett successfully completed his law studies in Philadelphia in 1770 and was subsequently admitted to the bar. From then on he worked in Dover . In 1774 he married his first wife, Ann Ennals, who bore him three children. With Francis Asbury , one of the founders of the Methodist Church , Bassett had a lifelong friendship after meeting him in 1776. This friendship resulted in strong faith and commitment in the Church. After Ann Ennals died, he married a second time in 1796. The couple got involved in the church and made their property available for religious meetings. They had four children together.

Political career

Basset was a member of the committee responsible for bringing the first Delaware constitution into effect on September 20, 1776. He was then for four legislative periods (1776 / 77-1779 / 80) member of the Senate ( Legislative Council ), to which only large landowners were allowed at that time. In the years 1780 to 1782 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Delaware ( House of Assembly ) to move back to the Senate. So except for the legislative period 1785/86, Bassett represented Delaware in the General Assembly from the Declaration of Independence to the adoption of the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Richard Bassett was a strong supporter of the Connecticut Compromise and Delaware only voted for five months first state to open after the Philadelphia Convention. Since then, Delaware has been nicknamed The First State .

With the creation of the new government Richard Bassett was one of the first representatives of the General Assembly on 25 October 1788 in the United States Senate voted. His tenure ranged from March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1793. Bassett showed a fundamental support for Vice President and Federalist John Adams and President George Washington . On the other hand, he rejected an extreme expansion of the president's rights, as requested by Alexander Hamilton . In 1792, like in 1776, Bassett was jointly responsible with John Dickinson for organizing the committee that carried out a revision of the old Delaware constitution. On June 12, 1792, the committee passed the new constitution. Since the first senators are usually sorted alphabetically, Basset is considered to be the senator with the highest seniority of any US senator elected.

After serving as Senator, Bassett took over the direction of the Court of Common Pleas in Delaware before he was elected governor in 1799 . The toughest presidential fight in US history also fell during his tenure. The election victory of Thomas Jefferson , republican and supporter of greater freedom of the individual states, in the presidential election of 1800 sealed the further political career of the federalist Bassett. The incumbent President Adams passed the so-called Midnight Judges Act , which enabled him to fill newly created positions in the United States Circuit Court , the forerunner of today's US federal courts , with federalists. Bassett received such a position from John Adams on his last day at work and thus ended his office as governor. The Republican Jefferson, however, after taking office on March 4, 1801, repealed the Midnight Judges Act and dismissed all newly appointed federalists. Bassett ended his office in April 1802 and was no longer active in public office until his death in 1815.

Web links

• Richard Bassett in the National Governors Association (English)
• Richard Bassett in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Bassett in the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges (English)
• The Political Graveyard (English)
• Richard Bassett in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BASSETT, Richard, (1745 - 1815) , Biographical Directory of the United States Congress retrieved November 19, 2019
2. ↑ A chronological list of senators on senate.gov, accessed November 19, 2019